Social Work Students Across the US Join Together to Protest Unpaid Placements
Social Work News • April 12, 2023
“The student-led movement, led by Payment for Placements (P4P), calls for fair payment for the mandatory placements which social work students must complete in order to graduate.
Currently, undergraduates must work 400 hours to complete their field education, while graduate students are required to work at minimum 900 hours.
For the majority of students, this labor is entirely unpaid.
P4P is staging a series of walkouts, rallies, and social media campaigns this week to highlight the financial hardship and emotional distress experienced by social work students, with the aim of making the field of social work equitable and accessible.
‘Right now, the current model calls for social work students to go to class and somehow pay living expenses, all while balancing a schedule that requires them to work for free for 20-40 hours per week,’ explained Beth Wagner, an organiser with the University of Texas's P4P chapter.”
